Star Wars - does it have a future?

[Alan V]

Also, the amount of energy it takes to actually blow a earth sized planet apart, as in blowing a planet apart with more energy than the planet’s mass can absorb with its own gravity, not just sterilize it or melt it, is actually mind blowingly huge.    It’s about 10E32 joules.   It’s roughly equal to the total energy earth’s sun puts out in a week.

Death star’s superlaser seems to deliver that energy in one second or less.  So Death star’s peak power output when firing on a planet must be at least 10e32 watts (that’s roughly a million times the peak power output of the sun for those of you counting)

Now, how much thrust does firing photos at a total power 10e32 watts generate?

I believe the formula is F=P/c.   So recoil force of Death Star’s super laser at the moment of firing is 3.33e24 newtons.   That’s equal to, oh, like, one quintillion times (like a trillion times, but a million times more) the thrust of the Saturn 5 rocket that launched Neil Armstrong to the moon.

So I would say the Death Star would shake and rattle.

Now for added ludicrousity, calculate how many Gs the Death Star would experience if pushed by such a recoil thrust.  Hint, grand moff Tarkin would be a sticky paste on the deck of the Death Star.

Of course, Star Wars is a space fantasy rather than proper science fiction, as are most of such movies.